Test: Luxury phones

This article was taken from the April issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online

Luxury phones are less about features and more about look and feel.We concentrated on what each phone was like to hold and use -- to see which had the "wow" factor. In the Vertu's case we examined the extra travelling and concierge services.We tested battery life by seeing how long each phone (apart from the Vertu -- see review) could play an MP3 file on repeat.

Tag Heuer Meridiist Lamborghini (pictured above)Tag Heuer's phone has a limited run of 1963 pieces -- the year of Automobili Lamborghini's founding. The handset is made from stainless steel coated with titanium carbide, which is used in tool bits and is highly scratch resistant. There are two displays: the main 1.9-inch LCD; and an OLED screen on top. This displays the time when you tap a key on the side -- tapping it again changes the clock's orientation. It's useful for peeking at the time without taking your phone out of your pocket - though surely this modesty defeats the very purpose of owning a Lamborghini phone. The interface is saddled with a rather old-fashioned option-list format, and it also runs slowly: texting is very laggy and not helped by the wobbly keypad. But battery life is almost double that of its nearest rival.

Vertu Constellation AyxtaThe Ayxta has fast and easy-to-use menus, and feels beautifully made -- you slide a catch to release the flip, which opens smoothly on ruby hinges. The optional ceramic keys are cool but not cold to the touch. Vertu wouldn't let us borrow a phone overnight, so we couldn't test battery life. It features Vertu Select, which is designed for timepoor travellers. On touchdown, it brings up a city guide giving you the best restaurants and things to see. There's a protocol app so you don't commit any faux pas abroad. You also get a year's free subscription to a concierge service that helps with anything from dry cleaning to a table at The Fat Duck. This costs £500 per year after that -- half the price of Quintessentially if you're penny-pinching.

Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte At £859, the Carbon Arte is the "bargain" in our test. It has the same reassuringly heavy weight as the other phones, but its slide-out keypad isn't as flash as the Vertu's flip or Motorola's rotate. Its matt finish means it doesn't feel as pleasantly cool in your hand as the more expensive phones. The 8800 has easily the best keypad, though. The keys' raised bottom edge and solid click make texting a joy. It has a simple, clear interface -- it's almost identical to that of standard, free-with-contract Nokia phones such as the 6700 Classic. It's the only phone in the group without a second battery in the box, but you do get a Bluetooth headset and a heavy steel desk stand. The 8800 is a well-designed phone, but it's too similar to normal Nokias and not flashy enough to stand out.

WIRED Relatively cheaper; great keypadTIRED Missing the X factor; no quad band

Motorola Aura DiamondThe Diamond has a rotating flip with over 200 parts, stainlesssteel housing, 18-carat-gold coating and four diamonds on its solid-gold directional keypad. The rotating flip works beautifully. It has a round screen with a 480-pixeldiameter resolution, hidden behind a sapphire-crystal "lens". Colours are vibrant, and text is sharp. The rotary menu system is pretty but impractical.We liked the phone's text-to-speech conversion, but texting can be tricky on the cramped keypad, and the OS runs slowly.